Paying It Forward
by GalaxieGurl
Summary: Booth and Brennan rarely hear from the beneficiaries of their dedicated work, but one day Brennan receives a unexpected visit from someone she and Booth helped in the past. These chapters will reveal how life turned out for some of these victims.
1. Chapter 1

Paying It Forward

"Dr. Brennan, this is Thompson in Security."

"Yes, Harry?"

"There's a young man here to see you whose name is not on the visitor log for today. Were you expecting a Sean Sanders?"

"No, I don't believe so…."

"Uh, M'am, he says to ask if you remember a Sean Cook you and Agent Booth once helped during a case?"

Officer Thompson heard a gasp through the line.

"Dr. Brennan, are you okay?"

He heard the scientist take a deep breath before she answered.

"Ah, yes, that is one name I remember well. Can you escort him to the Lab, please Harry?

"Certainly, Dr. Brennan."

Brennan thought back to the small blond boy whose hair was as straight and shaggy as Parker's was curly. How many years ago had she sat with him in the FBI's interview room, describing their mutual foster care experiences with the unmistakable smell of black plastic trash bags used in place of proper back packs?

She closed the computer file she was working on, and moved toward her couch, watching through the glass walls of her office as Harry Thompson approached with a tall young man wearing a Jeffersonian visitor badge.

"Dr. Brennan, I hope I'm not interrupting your work. I was hoping to invite you to lunch."

Sean Cook extended his hand and shook hers firmly.

"My brother David is over at the Hoover Building, visiting Agent Booth as we speak. We're both back in town for our mother's sixtieth birthday, and wanted to thank you two for the enormous difference you made in our family's lives twenty-two years ago."

"Of course, Sean. I'd love to see your mother again. How is it that you go by the name Sanders now?"

"Margaret adopted us, and we use it to honor her. We didn't drop Cook, we just use it as our middle name now."

Brennan removed her lab coat and pulled her jacket from the coat tree near her office door.

"Allow me, please, Dr. Brennan," said Sean politely, as he took her coat and held it for her to put on.

Brennan picked up her phone to alert Cam she'd possibly be late returning from lunch, left her office and walked to the lab's exit with Sean.

"The weather isn't too chilly; would you like to walk over to Booth's and my favorite diner?"

"Sure, that'd be great."

As they walked, Sean related that he was now an accounting major at the University of North Carolina- Charlotte where the Levine Scholars Program covered his tuition in full.

"UNC's Belk School of Business has a forensic accounting program. I want to do something to insure that government foster care funding is spent as effectively as possible to benefit kids like we were, Dr. Brennan. My brother is studying chemistry there to do research like Dr. Hodgins someday soon. We both want to pay forward the help you gave us, so we could stay with Margaret."

Two blocks later, they spotted Booth walking ahead of them, deep in conversation with a lanky brown-haired man.

"Booth!"

The two men turned around.

"Bones! You'll never guess who this is!"

"David Cook Sanders!" Brennan declared, extending her hand to Sean's brother.

Booth eyed his wife's blond companion. "Then you're Sean, right?" he ventured.

"Yes, sir, I am," Sean responded, shaking Booth's hand firmly.

David spoke up. "We both owe you more than we could ever repay. You made it possible for us to have a family, Dr. Brennan. As I told Agent Booth, Margaret adopted Sean and me. That's why you didn't recognize our names at first. Mom has done so much for us; we use her surname to honor that."

"Sean tells me you are studying chemistry, David. If you need a summer internship, I'm sure I can help you obtain one," Brennan offered.

"That's most kind of you, m'am, but Sean and I both have work-study internships at UNC. I was lucky enough to win an International Baccalaureate Scholarship and the Clariant Chancellor's Scholarship in Chemistry. I'm a Molecular Chemistry teaching assistant, and my brainy little brother here teaches three Principles of Accounting sections each week. Lots of paper grading, laboratory classes, as well as our own course load; keeps both of us hopping."

"We share a small house close to campus, and our jobs cover room and board expenses," Sean continued.

Entering the Royal Diner, the four of them found a table, and the brothers took turns updating Booth and Brennan on their lives with Margaret. Helen brought their burgers, fries and drinks with quiet efficiency, keeping their coffee cups and soda glasses filled as the conversation continued.

"Is your mother still in Alexandria?" Booth asked the brothers.

"Yes, sir, same house, same street, same neighbors. She's still best friends with Sarah Nelson, Skyler's mom. Thanks to your efforts, his father has been in Keen Mountain Correctional Center for nearly fifteen years now. There's some talk he'll come up for parole in five more years, but I hope they make him stay there. I know Skyler does. He and his mother went to counseling together for several years, and today he's a middle school science teacher."

Booth looked both young men in the eye. "You boys have achieved the kind of future we hoped for you. Margaret Sanders gave you love and support and you fulfilled the potential her generosity offered you. She has a right to be very proud of her sons."

"She used part of her trust fund to establish a scholarship in Charlie's memory at Northern Virginia Community College's Alexandria campus for criminal justice students."

"Your mother is a very good woman," Brennan declared. "Please give her our best wishes for her birthday. It means a great deal to Booth and me that you took the time to visit us. We don't often hear such positive results from our investigations. Seeing young people like you mature responsibly makes our efforts worthwhile. We appreciate the effort you made to come see us."

The brothers thanked Booth and Brennan again for the justice they gave Charlie, and rose to leave the diner.

"You never know, Bones, you just never know…when Sam called me from the Hoover's Security desk, I'd never have guessed at first who David Sanders was. The moment he said David Cook, though, I knew. Boy, that brought back memories, huh?"

"Yes, Agent Booth, it did. Our work brings justice for many victims, but it's certainly satisfying to hear from a live beneficiary! Most of the people we help can't revisit or speak."

"Well said, Dr. Brennan." And he leaned over to kiss his partner.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

In 2011, Seeley Booth received a letter from Walter Reed Military Hospital requesting his participation in a research study. A biomedical scientist there was examining the comparative efficacy of two different reconstructive surgical techniques of mid-foot fracture repair, by studying patients' long-term recovery results obtained from plates and screws vs Kirschner wires. In 1991, Booth's falaqua-injured feet had been reconstructed using K-wires open reduction with internal fixation. Now, 20 years later, the Walter Reed medical staff wanted input about his real life experiences, compared to other veterans.

Booth hated discussing his capture and torture. After ripping the envelope open in the privacy of his man cave, he scanned the letter, scowled darkly, crumpled it vigorously and tossed it across the room in frustration. Upset by the dark memories, he failed to notice missing the trash can.

Several evenings later as the couple retired, Brennan delicately raised what she knew would be a touchy subject. She extracted the wrinkled letter from her nightstand drawer, and gently touched her husband's shoulder.

"Booth, I know you dislike recalling that period in your life, but I feel your testimony about your experiences since the Gulf War could dramatically benefit other veterans, as well as civilians hurt in traffic collisions and other people suffering long bone metatarsal displacement injuries."

Booth sighed, knowing his bone-wise spouse would gently present evidence, logical arguments and persuasive pressure until he agreed to participate. But on this, he resolved to hold fast.

"I'm well aware that sharing personal information is anathema to you, but you've dealt with foot pain upon standing each morning of the last two decades, and perhaps they've learned something in that time which could help you. Physical therapy can ease pain and stiffness, as you're well aware. Booth. Some newly-developed exercise protocol might exist to offer you beneficial relief even now.

Silence from her mate.

She dropped the subject for a few days, then tried again.

"Did you even read the letter from Walter Reed all the way through? Did you notice the departmental medical staff, research personnel, and faculty members from universities in the DC area who are working on this study? There's a name on page six I believe you would recognize if you hadn't rejected this letter out of hand."

"Good use of a colloquial phrase, Bones," Booth remarked, kissing his wife. "But I'm still not talking to anyone about that experience.."

"Look, Booth," she persisted, handing him the letter folded with page 6 on top, indicating an enumeration of scholars involved in the study.

Reluctantly Booth took the thick sheath of papers and read down the list of names, until he stopped where she had pointed.

"Oh. My. Goodness…. Donovan Decker? Is that a blast from our ancient past or what?" He stared in a amazement at the name listed in the brochure.

"We handled that case the first year we were partners, Booth. Remember using his father's code word, "paladin" to reassure the boy, and Cullen saying that the name fit you?"

"That boy lost his finger from the barbarism of mercenary private security thugs," Booth remembered sadly. "How old would he be now? 28 or so? Somethin' tells me he's gonna be surprised to see us…"

"Okay, Bones, you win. I guess I'm in regardless of how I feel. Why do you 'spose Donovan Decker became involved with a project like this?"

"Probably because he was inspired by the _paladin_ who rescued him all those years ago, Seeley Booth," murmured Brennan softly, kissing her husband.

Several weeks later, Booth and Brennan walked into a conference room at the massive Army medical complex where he'd been treated two decades earlier. Booth still wasn't comfortable divulging his personal experiences, but realized that Brennan was correct; his testimony could help others with injuries like his.

His doctors, surgeons, and physical therapists had restored his ability to walk, as they'd promised. He'd never been pain-free since then, but felt blessed to be ambulatory, and grateful for their dedicated efforts. His old Army friend Judge Hank Luttrell was wheelchair-bound, yet led a full life serving others in the law.

The senior bio-medical engineering researcher on the veteran study, Dr. Donovan Decker was indeed surprised, pleased, and gratified to see the FBI agent again. He told Booth and Brennan that they were in fact the inspiration for his life's work; giving something back to improve the lives of other amputees.

"Losing my finger was painful, but nothing compared to the injuries suffered by some of the patients we treat," he declared. Before his assistant began recording Booth's testimony, Decker intervened and instructed the student that he would conduct this particular interview himself. As they talked, he related the events of the intervening years….

ooooooooooo

Once eight-year-old Donovan had been rescued by Agent Booth and the FBI SWAT team, his father willingly testified before the grand jury investigating government claims that KBC Systems had supplied sub-standard military flak jackets, confirming that the contractor rejected his penetration calculations as too cautious, and modified their body armor design to reduce costs. The KBC principals were indicted, fined and imprisoned for causing the combat death of 30 soldiers during a siege in Fallujah, Iraq.

Carl took his son home to rebuild their life without Polina, but their house held too many memories, so they moved to College Park, Maryland where the scientist joined the University of Maryland research mathematics faculty. Having inherited his father's analytical mind, Donovan excelled in science and math during high school.

Due to the loss of his finger while kidnapped, the boy became interested in prosthetics and won a national science fair competition by designing a rudimentary artificial pediatric hand. Attending Cornell University on a National Science Foundation scholarship, he completed a Ph.D. in bio-medical engineering by the age of 22, and dedicated himself to developing 3-D brain-controlled prosthetic limbs for Iraq and Afghanistan veterans at Walter Reed. He especially focused on the intricacies of artificial hand design, far more delicate and complex than prosthetics for the larger human limbs.

His father Carl had taught at UMd-College Park for 20 years, and would soon retire as a faculty member. But the older man had no intentions of becoming idle. He'd been offered a consulting position at Walter Reed, as part of his son's research efforts.

Donovan thanked the partners profusely for saving his life, and likely that of his father, and extended an invitation to visit his dad in the near future, as he also wanted to see them again.

Once the interview process was completed, Booth and Brennan returned to their car, and drove home.

"Well, that didn't turn out nearly as awkward as I'd imagined," Booth admitted. "It was a rather fulfilling afternoon, don't you think, Bones?"

Brennan looked over at him, tears sparkling in her eyes.

"Yes, Booth, it was. Sam Cullen was right all those years ago. Carl Decker's security word does fit. You truly are a paladin."


End file.
